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Central History of Shore
The history of Shore dates dates back almost 17,000 years, back to when the first shore-walkers made landfall. Pre-History To the most learned scholars, the origin of existence is still a murky subject. Much of pre-history is still strongly debated, and nothing is truly certain. The most commonly accepted narrative however, is as follows: Before anything was, the Astral Plane was all that existed - and then, from the plane, the Angels emerged. Beings of unknown power, drifting through the eternal white of the Astral Plane. Whether Shore was created by the Angels or discovered by them is, again, a hotly debated topic. Regardless, the Angels chose to cling to it, and grasped onto Meygom's Axis. At this time, it is believed life on Shore's two material planes, Shore (Continent) and Erohs began. Currently, the known history of Erohs is vastly lacking, save that it exists. Less ~16,000 - The Age of Dawn From the very earth of Shore rose the Arch-dragons, Shore's first race. The ancient dragon broods, chromatic and metallic, fought and quarreled endlessly, spilling their blood and casting their massive bodies to the earth and sea - shaping the continent and imbuing it with their magics. As they did so, young sentient life began deep in the waters of Shore. The world's first intelligent inhabitants aside from the dragons were the Mer-folk, as well as Chuul and their masters, Aboleths, who dominated the mer-folk. To escape from the aboleths tyrannical rule, many mer-folk migrated to shallower waters, becoming Tritons. When even this proved to be not enough to escape the aboleths' grasp, tritons migrated inland. One sub-section onto Shore's mainland, and another onto the sub-continent of Ilmathar. With time and dragonblood's latent magics, these migrants became Humans and Elves, respectively. Less ~4000 - The Age of Dragons For a time, humans and elves lived beneath the arch-dragons' eyes, who were too busy fighting each other for dominance. But as they prospered, the arch-dragons finally took notice. The chromatic arch-dragons subjected the mortal races to their will, dominating them much like the ancient aboleths once did. But the metallic arch-dragons viewed the new races as potential allies in their fight against their hated enemies. Humans and Elves were taught magic by the metallic arch-dragons, and together they waged a war against the chromatic arch-dragons - one which they would lose. Despite the combined efforts of metallic arch-dragons and mortals, the chromatics, recognizing a significant threat, stopped the in-fighting they were prone to descending into and fought in unison, ultimately defeating the mortal-dragon alliance. The chromatic arch-dragons were almost wiped out as a result, and went deep into hiding - they would never make a resurgence ever again. Mortals were subjected to an even more brutal conquest, and the world came under the rule of the chromatics. It was near the end of this golden age of chromatic arch-dragon rule that the five arch-dragons of modern history were at the height of their power: * Thaluaturac, a White Dragon who ruled the a region spanning most of The Ravant and half of The Sleeping Ancients. * Vizyrephaeros, a Red Dragon whose domain was The Godlands and the other half of The Sleeping Ancients. * Andraauthmorn, a Black Dragon who reigned over a large area containing Blackspine Peaks, Greenfather Forest, the Jungle of Nyhr, The Swell and the Maugald Isles. * Harquiturith, the Blue Dragon with a territory consisting of The Fallowlands, The Bitter Dunes, and Realmsreach. * Balvalaxurr, the Green Dragon who claimed all of Ilmathar for herself. The Accession The Accession marks the arrival of the 16 Outer Planes, which after seemingly hurtling through the Astral Plane for an unknown amount of time, were drawn into and began orbiting Shore. The event was underscored by the landfall of the Shorian Pantheon. Appearing in a flash of light that could be seen across the continent, the deities arrived on Shore at what would eventually come to be the central point of the capital city of Aura - where the Tower of Divinity would eventually be built. Such an arrival did not go unnoticed - the attentions of every chromatic arch-dragon were garnered, and upon meeting, the demands of the new arrivals were made clear; the arch-dragons would recognize them as the new Gods of this world, and answer to them. Naturally, there was a disagreement on just who the Gods of this world were. This sparked what would be called The Accession War, as the new Pantheon waged war against the collective Arch-Dragons. It was during this war that the Gods brought forth numerous new races to Shore, either from their home Plane or creating them outright, to aid in the war against the dragons. As the conflict dragged on, the magnitude of the battles threatened to destroy the world outright. At the war's zenith, the Angels then intervened - and stripped both the Gods and the Arch-Dragons of their might. The Gods lost their divine forms, and the arch-dragons shrank in both size and might, creating modern Dragons. Though the loss of power on each side was relatively even, the dragons, ever a proud and paranoid species, did not deal well with their diminishing. Upon discovering a similar fate had occurred to their hated enemies, they immediately began to blame one another, and the longstanding truce between the chromatic dragons finally shattered as they turned on one another. With the draconic alliance dissolved, the Pantheon, despite their newly lessened forms, quickly subdued their opponents. Dragons were slain by the hundreds, and those who remained quickly went into hiding, a fate similar to that of their metallic cousins. During the 8th Rotation, the war ended. The Pantheon once again proclaimed their divinity, and the world bowed before their new saviors. 8th Rotation - The Age of Founding Immediately following The Accession War, the holy city of Aura and the Tower of Divinity began construction - it was to be the seat of power from which the divine Pantheon ruled. The entire world was to be under their rule - the creation of the first recorded state in Shorian history, the''' Thearchic Hexacaidec. Under the rule of The Sixteen Thearchs, the Shorian Pantheon's new titles, Shore entered into a golden age of growth and peace as humans, elves, and all the new races settled more and more of the land. It was also during this era that several of the Pantheon would produce children, a novelty that came with their mortality. The new deities born from these unions were not entered into the central Pantheon, but became fringe deities, ruling whatever sphere of influence they could scrape away from their parentage. Eventually, the land ran out. Borders began to press against one another, and unrest began to swell in the Thearchy. Though there were many rising concerns, the growing alliance between elves and Demons was the greatest. This came to a head when, during the 1,052nd Rotation, a cabal of elven wizards called The Ascendants managed to open a massive gate to The Abyss, the world of the demons, and from it poured forth an unending army of the fiends, whose very nature demanded the reduction of Shore to nothingness. Their arrival heralded The Demonic Incursion. Jeddoh, God of the Void and Lord of the Abyss, returned to The Abyss to attempt to reign in the demons, but found that, in his absence, several Demon Lords had taken over his plane. With their combined might, they overcame Jeddoh, and cast him deep into the very depths of The Abyss. The forces of Shore rallied to push back the demons, who by this time had ravaged much of Ilmathar, but racial tensions that had festered since the Accession hindered their ability to cooperate. The Pantheon, bereft of much of their godly might and lacking a cohesive army, began to fall to the demonic onslaught. Just as demonic forces were beginning their assault of Shore's mainland, an Angel, so large that it could be seen the world over, materialized over Ilmathar, and brought down a massive fist upon Ars Shaeras, the elven city that contained the the Ascendants and their portal. When the angel had vanished, all that remained of the city was the massive Crater of Yemah. This marked the end of the Age of Founding. 1,058th Rotation - The Age of Division Following the end of the Demonic Incursion, the Thearchy, held together previously by the same demonic threat, began to collapse. With one of their number gone, the Thearchs became unbalanced, and mistrust grew between them. When Oemir, '''God of the Arts went missing - an event called The Veiling of Oemir - unity between the Thearchs was shattered; each accused the other of villainy, and denied their own involvement. The plot, ultimately, was concocted by Asmodeus, Lord of the Ninth. The plane of Baator, home to Malinus, God of Darkness, had suffered a fate similar to that of The Abyss, and saw a restructuring during his absence. Rather than slay him however, the new Archdevils of Baator used their mortal agents on Shore to seed mistrust among the Pantheon, and frame Malinus for Oemir's disappearance. Ultimately, their plan failed, and both Oemir - and the truth - were uncovered. Though the Archdevils could not be punished directly for their actions, dwelling deep in their holds in Baator, their minions could - those who consorted with the devils from all across Shore were transformed to resemble their devilish masters - tieflings. Those who were not killed on sight were captured, and ultimately, they would be sent into the Bitter Dunes to die. Luckily for them, a select number of them would find a veritable oasis in the southern part of the desert, and over many years, The Silver City would be founded. The devil's work was done. The Thearchic Hexacaidec all but dissolved as the Pantheon withdrew from Aura, fearing and mistrusting the others. With their deities withdrawing from the Thearchy, many races, still sore from the Demonic Incursion, felt the time was ripe to declare independence and begin enforcing their sovereignty. Among the major polities to appear during this time were: * The Orcish Doomvirate * The Giant Kingdoms * The Yuan-ti Hegemony * The Kingdom of Calledora * The Dwarf Holds The last remaining Thearch to remain in Aura, Lamaedah, believed that the fracturing unity of the land would be its own undoing. As such, he personally backed the reorganization of the remnants of Thearchic Hexacaidec into the Consecratum; an imperial state ruled by an emperor as chosen by Lamaedah himself, and whose mission statement was to bring the whole of Shore back under its just rule. The Consecratum quickly spread across the northern part of the continent, bringing the Godlands and the Ravant under its thumb with little resistance, as those regions still lacked a strong central power. But beyond that, they met resistance from their nearest neighbors - the giant kingdoms, the Orcish Doomvirate and the Yuan-ti Hegemony. Though immediately coming into conflict with the Orcish Doomvirate, the Consecratum chose to attack the Yuan-ti Hegemony, which began a conflict known as The Scathing of Maugald. After a quick victory in the isles, much of the world grew to fear the Consecratum - the Kingdom of Calledora quickly acquiesced to becoming a dominion of the burgeoning empire, as did several dwarvish holds (though not all). It was only 114 years after its formation that the Consecratum had restored much of the Hexacaidec's original territory. During the 1,547th Rotation, the Consecratum set their sights on their most challenging opponents yet; the giant kingdoms. They launched what would become The First Giant War, zealously attacking the kingdoms dwelling in the Sleeping Ancients mountain range - and they were immediately rebuffed. The giants, though inherently divided, quickly formed a united front against the invaders, and pushed them back out of the mountains. As the counter-attacks mounted, the Consecratum suddenly began to trounce the giant invaders. Using dangerously powerful magical artifacts, the giants were fought back to the very core of their civilization - their grand city of Ostoria. When victory seemed to be well within their grasp, the sky split open once again; an Angel. Even larger than the last, the creature reached down and pulled forth one of the largest mountains in the range and hurled it down at the invading empire. The impact shattered the land for miles. It drove a hole through the ground, deep into the ocean, and created the Rift of Gevuret. The entire north-eastern portion of the continent was destroyed. The empire lost much of its military and its incumbent emperor, Theolus the Incandescent. The giants lost their city and a large portion of their populace. And the Orcish Doomvirate, who dwelt in the badlands below the mountains, lost most of their territory. This act marked the end of the Age of Division. 1,549th Rotation - The Age of Return After the end of the First Giant War, Lamaedah refused to appoint a new emperor and withdrew from the public into his temple, much like the rest of his peers who had all but vanished. With their emperor gone and their military crushed, the Consecratum became defunct. The dominions of the empire were quick to regain their independence, and hungering for yet more, fractured even further. Most governments withdrew inside the borders of their cities, and became a collection city-states. The Kingdom of Calledora, one of the few large political bodies left, fractured shortly after their freedom from the empire - the judges who had been empowered by the empire to enforce the law refused to surrender the power they had, resulting in the Calledoran Civil War. The result was the emergence of the Kritarchy of Travern, splitting the southern part of the continent down an east/west divide. After decades of languid isolation, an event would shake the world from its malaise: The Second Giant War. While other races and powers grew reclusive, an alliance of fire, frost and hill giants struck out against the small races, seeking vengeance for the acts of the first war. Divided, the people inhabiting the Godlands and the Ravant stood no chance. But with a common enemy on the horizon, petty differences were put aside, and a defense was mustered. For the Ravant, the defense of their land brought the Ravantine people together. On the wide plains of the north-east, the giants were large, slow targets. An army of centaur and Ravantine horse-archers swiftly forced the giants back to the mountains, and the resulting cooperation had the city-states of the region come together to form The Ravantine League. The giant's assault on the Godlands was much more successful - able to swiftly strike across the entire region from the mountains, forts and fiefs fell beneath their march, with only a few cities, like Torrin, managing to mount a feasible resistance. The rest of the Godlands was defended by a ragtag force of fighters issued from Aura, whom were simply way to spread out across the region to be of much help. And after a failed effort to obtain the emperor's giant-slaying artifacts of old, the group's fighting strength was shot. Luckily for the small folk of the Godlands, a stone giant rebellion stoked dissension among giantkin. Most giants withdrew to deal with their rebellious brethren, but the territory they had washed over previously was never truly reclaimed by the small races. The fires of the Second Giant War petered out to a mere sputtering ember which was never truly extinguished, and continues to smolder to this day, untended to by either faction. As the conflict faded, a new fire was lit within the capitol, Aura. A religious fervor stirred by a movement known as The Reclamation. They contended that the current miserable state of society was due to their separation from the Pantheon - a separation which they, the mortals, had allowed to happen, through inadequacy, complacency and sloth - and so to invite the return of their gods, mortals had to go through the effort of righting that which they had let go wrong. Aura was galvanized to return the world back to the ways of old; the capitol became a hotbed of zealotry, desperate to see the reformation of the Hexacaidec. Missionaries and proselytizers began to fan out across the continent, attempting to unite the people once more under their benevolent deities. They would hit one particularly violent hiccup however. In The Ravant, the newly formed Ravantine League was already facing its first test of unity. Orthen Bluefield, lord of Bluefield Hold violently rejected the priests and clerics from the capitol. A respected veteran of the Second Giant War, he stood his ground when other members of the League demanded he cease his hostilities. Over time however, Orthen's sentiments began to resonate throughout the Ravant - it became untenable for the other lords to continue to welcome Reclamation missionaries in their lands. Soon, the Ravant became known as godless land - a region of the world that actively defied the Pantheon. For The Reclamation, this simply would not stand. The leader of the movement, Roah Credo, called out to the believers of the world to gather for a crusade against the Ravantine League to return the lands to the gods they belonged to - and the world responded. A host of all manner of warriors gathered before the borders of the Ravant, ready to march into the land at their leader's behest. 1,632nd Rotation - Current Year So far this rotation, the tiefling's Silver City was swallowed up by a massive Sphere of Annihilation. Almost nothing remains of the civilization. Additionally the town of Bellbrook experienced a bizarre series of attacks and murders, and though the culprit was eventually discovered, they were never brought to justice. Also, the ancient artifact, The Deck of Many Things, was once again unleashed upon the world to wreak chaos across it after it had been sealed away by The Ravantine Knights.